Helping for Christ – A Ministry of Heart of God International Ministries

By Dave and Julie Young

“You intended to harm me,
but God intended it for good
to accomplish what is now being
done, the saving of many lives.”
Genesis 50:20 NIV

The story behind Helping for Christ…

avid Young has served in the US Army Reserves for 24 years.  Shortly after 9/11 he left for his first one-year deployment to Afghanistan.  The orders for a second deployment to Iraq come in the summer of 2005.  Just before he was scheduled to ship out with his team, he was tapped to complete a “short-term” project in Haiti.  This “short-term” project turned into nine months and he ended up spending his entire second deployment in Haiti.  While in Haiti he met a local Haitian named Dicksent Jeen-Welch who served as his interpreter.  They became good friends. 

Dicksent claimed to be a Christian but his lifestyle did not support this claim.  Dicksent was involved in voodoo and was living a sinful lifestyle.  When David left the country, Dicksent lost his job.  David continued to stay in contact with Dicksent after he returned home from Haiti.  One day, while going to a job interview, Dicksent was in a horrible accident.  Many of the people riding on the vehicle were killed.  Dicksent was injured and became paralyzed.  David was able to arrange for Dicksent to be flown to the Dominican Republic and have surgery to repair the damage done from the accident.  The surgery was a success but Dicksent had a long road of recovery that included much physical therapy.  While he was recovering, David made arrangements to have someone bring a Bible to Dicksent.  Dicksent read the gospel and, as a result of that, accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior!  A short time later, he took his wife to be baptized as she also made the decision to follow Christ after seeing the change in Dicksent! 

Recently, Dicksent graduated from his studies and was ordained as a Lutheran Pastor.  He is a new man, completely changed in all respects from the man David knew while he was in Haiti.  Upon his conversion, God placed in Dicksent’s heart a deep desire to help the people in his community.  Working with the Pastor of his local church, Dicksent has started an organization called Helping for Christ.  They currently operate a Christian day school for the children in their community in Port Au Prince.  115 children are enrolled in the school but only a handful of the children’s parents are able to pay the $7 per month tuition that is charged.  However, Dicksent does not have the heart to deny the children an education and continues to teach them for free.  In addition, Dicksent has recently begun providing free literacy courses to the adults in the community who have never learned to read and write.  He currently has 10 adults ranging in age from 32 to 74 who attend the classes.  The goal is to teach them enough so they are able to read the bible themselves. 

In addition to running the school, Dicksent has taken into his home several homeless children that have come to him for help.  He has formally adopted five of these children and another 15 have been taken in by the other teachers who work with him at the school.  He and the members of his team have a burning desire to do so much more for the people in their community.  As part of the school, they want to provide at least one hot meal a day to the children.  They would also like to operate a children’s home to provide shelter, food and a caring environment for the abandoned children who live on the streets of Port Au Prince.  They want to setup a medical care center to provide necessary medical care to people who cannot afford it.  Above all and as part of all of these activities, they are preaching the Gospel to as many people as they can.  Since the school began, all of the teachers and students have accepted Christ as their personal savior and now many of the children’s parents are beginning to accept Christ as well!

We have recently partnered with Heart of God International Ministries, a U.S. charity that has agreed to take on Helping for Christ as one of their missions.  Heart of God International Ministries is operated completely by volunteers.  As a result, every dollar donated to ministry in Haiti goes directly to Helping for Christ.  The teachers at the school are Haitians living in Dicksent’s community, providing them with employment that they would not otherwise have.  The eight teachers are each paid $75 per month for their services.  Additional costs to operate the school include school supplies and books, food to serve the children at least one meal a day ($1.00 per day to feed a student at the school), and materials to make benches for the students and blackboards.  Currently we are able to provide enough funding to cover the salaries of the teachers and provide about one meal a week for the children.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and our ministry there.  Any donations are tax exempt and go directly to the mission field.